Reporter calls out media for coverage of Biden’s cognitive decline at dinner honoring journalists

WASHINGTON — In an acceptance speech for his coverage on the Biden administration, White House reporter Alex Thompson called out his fellow journalists for failing to document President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline during the final stretch of his term.

At the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, an event intended to celebrate journalists and the First Amendment, Thompson acknowledged that he and many in the White House press corps did not properly report on former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline during a crucial moment in history. His remarks left a somber tone at the high-profile dinner filled with hundreds of journalists from major outlets as well as prominent political figures.

“Being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story,” Thompson said as he accepted the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. “President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception.”

Thompson, a reporter for Axios, was largely chosen for the award because of his reporting on Biden’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump last summer. During that matchup, Biden struggled over his words and spoke with a raspy voice — prompting widespread concerns about his overall health.

Thompson later uncovered crucial details leading up to the debate as well as Biden’s decision to ultimately drop out of the race. Many of those details are expected to be released in Thompson’s forthcoming book “Original Sin” written with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

The authors of the book say they will tell “the full, unsettling truth” for the first time, including conversations with key players such as White House staffers, congressional lawmakers, Cabinet members, governors and Hollywood donors — all who knew about the problems inside the White House.

However, Thompson acknowledged that reporters failed to investigate the signs of Biden’s cognitive health sooner, which he said has led to a distrust of the media.

“Some people trust us less because of it,” Thompson said. “We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust and being defensive about them further erodes it.”

Trust in the media hit historic lows in October, with a Gallup poll showing only 31% of Americans with a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Comparatively, 33% said they had “not very much” trust in the media.

Those sentiments are especially true of Republican voters, as a majority of the party (59%) say they have no trust in the media at all, according to Gallup. That number has risen since President Donald Trump took office the first time in 2016.

At the time Trump took control of the White House in his first term, only 38% of Republicans said they had no trust in the media. That surged over the next four years, reaching 50% for the first time in 2020 at the height of the presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, only 6% of Democrats say they have no trust in the media as of October 2024.

Thompson’s comments come as several journalists have sought to take responsibility for lack of coverage in some areas that Trump and top White House officials have used to accuse mainstream media of being biased against conservatives.

For example, NPR CEO Katherine Maher testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this year acknowledging that the station did not do enough to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election cycle. Maher even went so far as to call those judgment calls “a mistake.”

Thompson’s speech made headlines at an otherwise lowkey event. The annual dinner is known for its glitz and glamor, although this year it took on a quieter tone amid high tensions between the Trump administration and the press corps.

Trump himself chose not to attend the dinner, breaking with tradition for the president to be welcomed as a guest of honor and offer some remarks. Trump did not attend any of the four dinners hosted during his first term.